Greetings my fellow brothers and sisters in toys collecting(or whoever it is that is reading this). Ghost_XIII here, reporting in with another review. This time around, we gonna look at the first figure ever to come out for the Garo:Yami Wo Terasu Mono(which is the third season of Garo) series, I present you, Makai Kado Flame Knight Zen.

As you can see, this is the ever elusive brown box which means sadly, Zen is Tamashii Web Shouten limited.

Screw it. I still want my brown box.

The box is typical web exclusive box by Bandai. Plain and windowless. There’s some illustration of Zen but that’s practically it.

Out of the package, you will be greeted with a single tray of disappointment in the accessories department.
You will be getting:

-Zen himself
-his flame scimitar(I can’t find any official name for it like Garo’s garoken)
-two open hands
-one holding thing right hand

and of course, instruction manual.

Out of the box, this Makai Knight is ready to go.

Zen is rendered in a bright red with some metallic sheen to it and it looks really cool. I think he looks better in toy form compare to his on screen counterpart. I find zen in the show looks a little on the scrawny side but maybe that’s just me.

The detail is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. I let the pictures do the talking.

One thing that makes me wonder is what Zen is based on. I mean, all the armors in Garo are based on wolf but those two curled canine fang makes Zen looks like a boar rather than wolf. Remind me of some carving on totem that I saw when I lived in Borneo.

The head has some gap in their positioning but you won’t notice it that much.

The paint application on my copy of the figure is perfect. This is the neatest paintjob I’ve ever received from this line.

He looks good but how does he moves?

His articulation is good. Almost great. But before we move on, I would like to say, how solid this guy feel in hand. What surprises me when I pick him up is his weight. I’ve been told there is some diecast on him but I can’t pinpoint them. The knee pad is diecast for sure.

Returning to articulation, starting off with the head. The head is on the limited side. That is really how much you can make him look down and up. Side to side is no problem.

Like all Garo figures, you can open up his mouth which make him looks like a rat to me.

The arm is on a hinge with a very nice range.

The biceps connects to the shoulder via a ball joint and so does how the forearm connected to the elbow. This mean they are swivel-able. My copy of the figure has a problem where the biceps like to pop off from the shoulder on the right arm but it’s no big deal.

The hand is on a ball joint so it is rotatable but when you try to do that, it will bump into the wrist. You can still rotate the wrist 360 with a little force.

The ab is where this baby really shines. Look at that flex and crunch. But doing so will leave some gap in his looks.

There is a moveable yellow fin(?) at the side of the thigh which in theory should provide more room for the leg to spread which kinda works.

The leg can move forward really far. I think you can push it a bit more but I don’t see why you wanna go that high. The leg will move out at an angle which can be a little annoying. His cock piece has no locking point or anything so it just jiggles around there but not in a bad way. It gives way for the leg movement.

The knee is double jointed. The thigh can swivel. Sadly there is no toe joint. The ankle can only tilt inward with some movement forward and back.

Next up is the accessory.

Zen is only included with his scimitar. I was hoping the shield he got at the end of the show were included but oh well..Not to mention the figure is released before he even got the shield in the show. Why Bandai??

At least it’s nicely detailed eh?

To make Zen holds the scimitar, the hilt and the blade is separate-able and you just need to thread Zen’s hand in. The sword connection(hilt and blade) is not as solid as I would want but it will stay connected. Just a little wobbly.

And boy, does he look good or what.

Should you buy this?

The usual million dollar question. Buy or not to buy? Let’s rant about him a little first. His articulation can be improved a lot but judging how things look, Bandai is trying to maintain the ‘clean’ looks of the armor thus avoiding some sculpt breaking joint placement which a part of me forgive but a part of me don’t. I guess that will be just my problem.

Then the accessory. It’s really sparse but I can’t really blame Bandai about it because that is what he came with in the show. Save for the shield which I felt Bandai really should include that in to spruce his accessory count up a little. Maybe some flame effect would be nice.

And finally the price. Being an exclusive, its certain you gonna pay a lot for this guy. Usually this guy cost MYR300(about USD100) but as usual, I got a good deal on mine. For what he came with and what he does, it feels like you are just paying more for his sculpt and looks which not is not bad per say but does it really worth that much?

So in conclusion, the only thing that’s in the way for me to recommend this guy is his price. But if you can afford it or found one selling cheap, this is a great high-end collectibles by Bandai and you won’t be disappointed with him as a display piece.